1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of automation of Bit Error Rate Testing for digital equipment and transmission lines undergoing testing. In particular, the present invention relates to the automatic generation of profiles, which include test parameters, used in such testing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Internet Service Providers, ISPs, that deploy Points of Presence, POPs, use what are commonly-known in the industry as T1/E1 transmission lines to interconnect to Central Office (CO) exchange units. Since a significant portion of ISP customers consist of large enterprises and financial institutions, ultrahigh availability of services is often a crucial component in the selection of the ISP. The demarcation point between the local carrier and the ISP is usually the T1/E1 jack, at the ISP premises. If during POP failure, the ISP suspects the T1/E1 links provided by the local carrier are faulty, the problem is escalated to the local carrier, which uses its own equipment to test the lines.
Obviously, if the local carrier does not detect the problem, the ISP will have to dispatch a technician with special test equipment to the POP site to isolate the problem. To reduce expenses, large ISPs manage multiple POPs dispersed over a large geographical area, from a single Network Operating Center (NOC). Therefore, sending a technician to a remote location might be time consuming, which is unacceptable for some of the customers who require ultrahigh network availability, while keeping a technician with test equipment at each POP might incur prohibitive costs. ISPs therefore seek a user-friendly interface to conduct a comprehensive test of the T1/E1 lines from a remote location (usually NOC).
Loopback and BERT are used by carriers and ISPs to aid in problem resolution as well as testing of the quality of transmission links.
Bit Error Rate Testing (BERT) has been used in the industry for testing of various equipment used for digital communications. For example, switches and routers, which are devices that select the path over which a given piece of data will travel to its destination, interface with transmission lines carrying channels of digital information. Testing of these devices and the integrity of the transmission lines is an important task in ensuring the successful transfer of information from its source to its destination. Given that an equipment (or device) such as a router interfaces to multiple transmission lines, it is pertinent to test the quality of each of such lines. Furthermore, there are various different types of tests employed for testing various aspects of each line. Each type of test includes various parameters, such as the bit test pattern, the length of the test and so forth. There can be as many as 20 different test parameters associated with each line.
Currently, in prior art techniques employing BERT, in order to run BERT for each line, the user has to run the test pattern that is assigned to that line and wait for the test to be completed prior to beginning the next test. The next test that is run may be with a different test pattern and/or for a different line. Once the number of tests for a transmission line undergoing testing is completed, the user can then begin testing the next line. This can be a very time-consuming process requiring considerable user interaction since the user must enter all of the parameters every time a test is run on a particular line.
There is therefore a need to automate the process of BERT such as to minimize any user interaction and to decrease the time associated with running BERT thereby increasing system efficiency.